Interview Outtakes, Part 4

Most of the time when I am conducting an interview with a soap star, I have more interview material than space for printing the interview. Here are some blurbs from stars that did not make it to the print version of the interview, but were too good not to publish.


Marla Sokoloff: I had to look something up on YouTube the other day, and some of my earlier acting jobs came up. I saw something I had done on “Step by Step,” and I must have been 12. It was so strange, because I don’t even remember too many of those experiences. But I was a huge fan of “Full House” before I was on it, like most kids in the sixth and seventh grade. When I got on it, I thought I’d be the coolest kid in school, but it actually backfired on me and I got made fun of.

Jonathan Jackson (Lucky Spencer, “General Hospital”) on playing Kyle Reese in “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”: That was really fun and that was a cool show. I liked the “Terminator” movies growing up, so it was pretty cool to be on the show. In terms of being that iconic character, when you go into something like that, you don’t overthink that you are playing a character that is so loved already. You just go into it and try to put your own thing into it with a sense of respect for the original thing, but not too much that it makes you gun shy.


Betty White (Ann, “The Bold and the Beautiful”) on receiving the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, which will be presented this January: I cannot tell you what a thrill this is. When they called me I thought: “Well, they’ve made some kind of mistake. They must mean another Betty White.” I am just beside myself. I can’t believe it, and I can’t be coy about it. I am just thrilled to pieces.

Jay Kenneth Johnson (Philip Kiriakis, “Days of Our Lives”): I like that the writers have been integrating a lot of the characters. It’s smart writing to mix it up. It’s a small town, considering there are three places that we go. I mean, you’re bound to run into someone you know at the Brady Pub, right? And, at the Kiriakis mansion, I think we have at least 20 people living there.

Courtney Thorne-Smith: I am very prompt. Right after I had Jack, I’d missed a phone interview. It had never happened before in my life. In the beginning, after you have a child, there’s just no room for it. Usually on a day where I know I have an interview, it is constantly in my mind, but it’s all gone, because you’re thinking about changing the baby, keeping the baby from crying, keeping the baby from crying, keeping the baby from crying. It supersedes everything.

Don Diamont (Bill Spencer, “BB”): When you have a character like Bill, one who you want to be a romantic leading man, and he is that cutthroat, that makes it challenging. It makes the relationship that much more dynamic, and I think the writers are doing an incredible job with this, Whether Katie wants to admit it or not, she is enthralled by this guy, and the way that he wields his power and his influence. There is that place in her where she wishes she could be more like him.

Interview B&B: Betty White Returns to Tie Up Loose Ends

Betty White (photo courtesy JPI Studios Inc.) last appeared on “The Bold and the Beautiful” as the not-so-great mother of Stephanie and Pam a year ago. Betty is back as Ann starting Nov. 18, but this time Ann is very ill and preparing for her death. But first, she has some loose ends to tie up with her daughters.

Betty was thrilled to return to the “B&B” set, telling me: “I was so surprised that they wanted to have me back. Ann hasn’t been there in about a year, so it was kind of nice to come back and revisit the character — not only from an actor’s standpoint, but also because it is such a great show to work on. They are the nicest people in the world, and they greet you back like a member of the family — even though it’s a member of the family they don’t like on camera.

“It didn’t even feel like I had been away for a year. I think it’s amazing that as long as that show has been going, that they keep the freshness to it. It’s amazing. It’s also, for me, such a great stretch, because I don’t get the chance to do serious acting. So to get some serious things to do was kind of fun.”

Switching between comedy and drama is easy when you’re a pro like Betty. “You get a different mind-set. You try to see it from a different perspective from the other things you do. A couple of times there was a chance to almost go for the laugh, and I had to resist that temptation strongly.”

Having the chance to work with the “B&B” cast again was another perk for Betty. “When you get into the acting that is on this show — Susan Flannery is so good, as is Alley Mills — it really makes it easy to get into character and really go for it. You’re playing very heavy, serious scenes, and during the breaks, you can laugh at it all. It’s nice that they don’t take themselves so seriously that they can’t get out of character.”

Betty assures me that fans will be happy with what they are going to see. “I was very happy with how they handled Ann’s story. There are some surprises. We had one beautiful day up at Malibu on the beach. We were up at Paradise Cove, and Ann is so taken with this setting — again, another side of Ann that you don’t expect to see, that she would be that taken with natural beauty — that for me it opened up a new door for playing Ann.”

Betty almost didn’t get to play Ann this second time around. “I was so surprised when they invited me back. They had asked me before, but I couldn’t schedule it because I was working on other projects. I was glad when they asked me again, because they had written such an interesting story line, and it’s tough for an actress to turn down something like that. It’s fun to play.

“‘B&B’ is the closest for me to doing something I don’t get the chance to do, which I enjoy doing, and that is playing a serious role. Comedy is still my heart, but this satisfies that craving to do a serious role.”

However, the role that Betty craves most is that of animal lover and advocate. She tells me: “I’ve been with the Morris Animal Foundation for 43 years. We are a health organization; we fund research for specific health problems of dogs, cats, horses and wildlife. We helped develop the feline leukemia vaccine and the parvovirus vaccine. I’ve also worked with the Los Angeles Zoo for 45 years. Zoos these days take such good care not only of animals in the zoos but of animals overseas that are diminishing in population.

“That’s the big half of my life. I have to be in show business to pay for my animal business.”

Familiar Faces Return to B&B for Brief Stints

The great Betty White (pictured, second from left) returns as Ann Douglas on The Bold and the Beautiful on Tuesday, Oct. 28.

Also, Drew Tyler Bell returns as Ridge and Taylor's son Thomas on Oct. 30 and 31, and on Nov. 3.

Betty White Back on The Bold and the Beautiful

(Photo Caption: Actress Betty White at the 41st Emmy Awards. Photo credit: Alan Light. Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan-light/211186811/)

My favorite Golden Girl is back on B&B as Ann, Stephanie Forrester's mother. And, of course, Stephanie is mad at her about something (just what that is, you'll have to watch to find out). Tune in tomorrow, Feb. 27th, for your Betty White fix.